A Reluctant Queen The Love Story of Esther by Joan Wolf

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
           -Mordecai's advice to Queen Esther, the Book of Esther 4:13-14 (NIV)

Several years ago my women's church circle was involved in a Bible study of the book of Esther which I found very interesting. When I saw that the library had a book bundle (multiple copies in a set) of this title, I was determined to use it as a Page Turner selection. I waited quite a while to find it available for checkout but I kept trying because I knew it would be different from anything we had read in a while and all our book club folks are people of faith. I enjoyed it---will rate it a 4---and hope they liked it, too.

In the Biblical book the quote with which I began was quite a notable scripture reference. All through the novel, I kept looking for a statement that was similar and never really found it. In the Author's Note, Ms. Wolf does admit to "tinkering a bit with the Esther story as it is presented in the Bible." After finishing the novel, I reread the Bible original and realized there was a lot of tinkering! The characters come alive with the author's fleshing out of their emotions and motivations and of course the dialogue adds even more realism. A true Biblical scholar would have problems with some changes and additions to the Esther story but if read as fiction, A Reluctant Queen is quite enjoyable, especially if the reader likes a good love story once in a while!

I look forward to meeting with our group and hearing their thoughts....more later.
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Page Turners rate the book 3.7, with all votes either 3 or 4. I'd say we liked it. We agreed you could not read it as history and appreciate it, only as a work of fiction. One member of the group told me she had a library copy of the book that had editing marks and indignant comments written in it---obviously a reader who did not take that advice. Almost all participants said they reread the Bible book of Esther either before or after The Reluctant Queen.

I compared The Red Tent, a novel by Anita Diamant which is also Biblical fiction, a Jacob, Rachel and Leah story. I had recently seen the mini series on TV and was reminded of the "tinkering" Diamant did with the Genesis story. Many knew just what I meant.

Refreshments are always offered at our meetings, supplied by volunteers. On my way to the meeting I was thinking we should have a "Queen's feast."  As it turned out, two of our members had planned just that, theming our edibles with the book. We had Haman's ears---lovely triangular shaped cookies with jam in the centers---poppy seed muffins, grapes, figs, dates, nuts and a lovely warm potato dish. Delicious! All of that plus a very stimulating discussion!